To excel in his or her sport, an athlete must include these 3 unavoidable components in his or her training regimen - strength training, endurance and stamina training and flexibility training. Endurance and stamina can be defined as the ability of an individual to undergo a prolonged period of physical activity without undue stress or exhaustion. Endurance and stamina can usually be acquired with 2 very common training methods, namely Interval Training and Circuit Training. What is interval training?
Interval training is any kind of prolonged low intensity physical activity in between which are interspersed periodic intervals of short but highly intense physical activity. This process of alternating the low intensity with the high intensity intervals is repeated continuously for the whole duration of the workout.
An example of interval training is interval running. Let's say you are going to do a 3-mile run. Now instead of running this 3 miles at a same constant speed, you include some all-out sprints at specific intervals of say every 300 metres. These all-out sprints can be of 1 or 2 minutes duration or less depending on your level of fitness. After every burst of sprints, you will slow down to a jog or walk (if you are not very fit) for about 300 meters before your next burst of sprint.
From the above example, we can deduce the benefits of interval training which are four-folds:
1. Muscular strength, speed and power are acquired from the short but highly intense sprint
intervals.
intervals.
2. Muscular endurance and stamina is a second physical effect acquired since the workout is
continuous.
3. Cardio-respiratory fitness - the heart and lungs too have to work continuously from high
intensity to low intensity during the workout, thus making them more efficient and stronger.
intensity to low intensity during the workout, thus making them more efficient and stronger.
4. Fat loss can be experienced up to 48 hours after an intense bout of interval training.
Interval training is applicable not only to running but to other sports as well such as swimming, cycling, rowing and martial arts. Below are some examples of interval training applied to these other sports.
Interval Swimming
First you determine how many laps you are going to swim and the duration of each fast and slow intervals. During the course of the swim, you need not do the same swimming stroke but instead can interchange the various strokes so that the workout becomes more challenging. For example, you can do slow freestyle during the low intensity phase and fast butterfly during the high intensity phase or slow backstroke during the low intensity phase and fast breaststroke during the high intensity phase. There are no fixed rules about how one should train and you can come up with various other combinations of the strokes if you like.
Interval Cycling
For interval cycling you will need either an outdoor sports bicycle or an indoor stationary bicycle. The former is preferable to the latter as an outdoor terrain consists of uneven surfaces such as slopes or hills which make the workout more strenuous and aerobic. Here again, as in interval running or swimming, you do the high and low intensity intervals continuously for the whole duration of the workout.
Interval Rowing
If you have a canoe or kayak, you can do your interval rowing out in the sea, lake, pond or river. It can also be done indoors with an indoor rowing machine. Determine first the duration of the low and high intensity intervals and then proceed with the training.
Interval Training For Kickboxing
You will need a heavy punching bag for this workout. The intervals you perform on this punching bag will be highly intense. In other words, you will strike the bag with kicks, punches, elbows and knees with all your strength, speed and power for one or two minutes duration. Immediately after this and without pause, you will practise your kicks, punches, elbows and knees on an imaginary opponent for another minute or two or more - this is called "shadow kickboxing". During this shadow kickboxing you can include some ducking, weaving, parrying, blocking and footwork drills. The heavy bag work is the high intensity interval while the shadow kickboxing is the low intensity interval. This process of repeating the two intervals one after the other is continued for the whole duration of the workout which can last for 15 minutes or more.
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